Scripted

NTV’s new retro crime series Murderous Fervor was presented during Key Buyers Event: digital edition, the first international online market of Russian media content.

10-episode series is based on one of the most shocking crimes in the USSR – case of the ‘Vitebsk Strangler’ Gennady Mikhasevich who murdered 36 people from 1971 to1985. During that period, the investigation committed over ten miscarriages of justice; for many years, Mikhasevich became a true nightmare of the most peaceful of the Soviet Republics. He’s considered one of the cruelest serial killers, coming third after Chikatilo and Onoprienko.

The story is set in the Vitebsk Region of the Belorussian SSR in 1984. A truck with shoplifters chased by a traffic police officer disappears on the forest highway. Search-and-rescue team discovers the body of a young girl instead. The case is assigned to Mikhail Shakhnovich, a local expert. Senior investigator Leonid Ipatiev comes from Minsk to help him. Both share a mutual dislike for one another. At the beginning of the investigation, Ipatiev suspects that kidnapping and disappearance of the traffic police officer is linked to the girl’s murder. Shakhnovich clings to the idea and arrests random suspects to make them admit to the crime. Ipatiev, working on both cases, comes to the conclusion that the arrested people were innocent. He tries to convince his chiefs, but Shakhnovich has more authority. The accused are sentenced to do their term in jail. However, that doesn’t put an end to the homicides of women in the Vitebsk Region.

The series stars Sergey Marin, Aleksandr Samoylenko, Sergey Chirkov and Zoya Berber.

NTV also held an online presentation of its key projects, including over ten new action-packed TV shows and popular TV formats. ‘Wolf Trap’ action-packed crime series and ‘Noble Detective’ history crime series have been screened during the event. NTV takes part in the Key Buyers Event both as a participant and a key partner.